The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VII | Page 6

number of names, had
taken ship the afternoon before.
"I see," remarked Carrington. "He needed exactly my tip to move to
new fields. He worked me from the article in the paper, which he had
seen and I had not. Clever Presidio!"
* * * * *
When Tommy, the hall-boy, on the night of Mr. Holt's first Tenderloin
assignment, went to inform the police, Carrington, looking about the
apartment to discover the extent of his loss, found on a table a letter
superinscribed, "Before sending for the police, read this." He read:
"Dear Mr. Carrington: Since we met in Manila I have been to about
every country on top of the earth where a white man's show could be
worked. It's been up and down, and down and up, the last turn being
down. In India I got some sleight-of-hand tricks which are new to this
country; but here we land, wife and me, broke. Nothing but our
apparatus, which we can't eat; and not able to use it, because we are shy
on dress clothes demanded by the houses where I could get
engagements. In that condition I happened to see you on the street, and
thought to try a touch; and would, but you might be sore over the little
fun we had in Manila. I heard in South Africa that you wouldn't let the
army officers start the police after me; and wife says that was as square
a deal as she ever heard of, and to try a touch. But I says we will make

a forced loan, and repay out of our salaries. We hocked our apparatus to
get me a suit of clothes which looked something like those you wear,
and the rest was easy: finding out Tommy's name and then conning him.
I've taken some clothes and jewelry, to make a front at the booking
office, and some cash. You should empty your pockets of loose cash: I
found some in all your clothes. Give me and wife a chance, and we will
live straight after this, and remit on instalment. You can get me pinched
easy, for we'll be playing the continuous circuit in a week; but wife
says you won't squeal, and I'll take chances. Yours, sincerely as always,
Presidio."
So Carrington told the superintendent to drop the matter.
The Great Courvatals, Monsieur and Madame, showed their new tricks
to the booking agent and secured a forty weeks' engagement at a salary
which only Presidio's confidence could have asked.
Presidio liked New York, and exploited it in as many directions as
possible. With his new fashionable clothing and his handsome face, he
was admitted to resorts of a character his boldest dreams had never
before penetrated. He especially liked the fine restaurants. None so
jocund, so frank and free as Presidio in ordering the best at the best
places. Mrs. Presidio did not accompany him; she was enjoying the
more poignant pleasure of shopping, with a responsible theater
manager as her reference! At a restaurant one midday, as Presidio was
leisurely breakfasting, he became aware that he was the object of
furtive observation by a young lady, seated with an elderly companion
at a table somewhat removed. Furtive doings were in his line, and he
made a close study of the party, never turning more than a scant
half-face to do so. The manner of the young lady was puzzling. None
so keen as Presidio in reading expression, but hers he could not
understand. That she was not trying to flirt with him he decided
promptly and definitively; yet her looks were intended to attract his
attention, and to do so secretly. The elderly companion, when the
couple was leaving the restaurant, stopped in the vestibule to allow an
attendant to adjust her wrap, and Presidio seized that chance to pass
close to the young lady, moving as slowly as he dared without seeming

to be concerned in her actions. Her head was averted, but Presidio
distinctly heard her breathe, rather than whisper, "Pass by the house
to-morrow afternoon."
* * * * *
Presidio pondered. He was supposed to know where her house was; he
was unwelcome to some one there; he was mistaken for some one
else--Carrington!
When he told his wife about it she was in a fever of romantic
excitement. Bruising knocks in the world, close approaches to the
shades of the prison house, hardships which would have banished
romance from a nature less robustly romantic, had for Mrs. Presidio but
more glowingly suffused with the tints of romance all life--but her own!
"Mr. Carrington has done us right, Willie," she declared; "once in
Manila, when we simply had to get to Hong Kong; and here, where we
wouldn't have had no show on earth if he hadn't